Bryan Singer accuser says he was raped by the director in late 1990s

Thursday, April 17, 2014 - 01:14

Man accuses ''X-Men'' director Bryan Singer of raping him as a teenager in the late 1990s. (Rough cut - no reporter narration)

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ROUGH CUT (NO NARRATION)
STORY: A man has accused film director Bryan Singer of drugging and raping him when he was a teenager during the late 1990s. The accusation comes just weeks before the release of Singer's blockbuster "X-Men" action film, "X-Men: Days of Future Past." The lawsuit, filed on Wednesday in U.S. Court in Hawaii, alleges that Singer, 48, used his influence as a Hollywood insider as well as a range of drugs and alcohol to force anal and oral sex on then teenager, Michael Egan, while promising him roles in his films. Egan is seeking unspecified damages and a jury trial after claiming to have suffered wide-ranging abuses at California and Hawaii house parties beginning in the late 1990s, according to the civil action filed by his lawyer. "I was raped numerous times in that house by numerous individuals, various types of sexual abuse all throughout that house. You were like a piece of meat to these people and they would pass you around between them, it was... if I could define what that house was it was evil, that's what the house was," Egan recounted to the media during a news conference. "X-Men: Days of Future Past" will open in U.S. theaters on May 23 and is distributed by 20th Century Fox. It is expected to be one of the top-grossing films of the year with a projected opening weekend haul of $103 million, according to Boxoffice.com. The lawsuit could complicate the global promotion roll-out for Fox by pushing the director's legal problem to the forefront of the film starring Hugh Jackman, Jennifer Lawrence, Patrick Stewart, James McAvoy and Halle Berry. Singer, who directed "X-Men" in 2000 and its sequel "X2" in 2003, is also signed on to direct the next installment in the franchise, "X-Men: Apocalypse," for Fox, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The film is scheduled to be released in 2016.